Milligan’s debate team held its first tryouts on Sep. 1, at the Tennis Pavilion. The tryouts were hosted by Dr. Blouin, head of the English department at Milligan, who also serves as the club’s coach and advisor.
Ten students participated in the tryouts; prospective students were divided into pairs and given a topic. After a topic was established, each pair was given five minutes to either prepare their argument in favor of the prompt or against it. Afterwards, the pairs took turns publicly discussing their arguments and negating their opponents.
Topics debated were common trends from 2020 including, “separation of church and state” and “political correctness has gone too far.”
Elideth Lopez was one of the ten to try out. Lopez is a sophomore, majoring in Economics and Business Administration with a concentration in legal studies.
“Law school is my ultimate goal,” said Lopez, “joining the debate team will help me adjust to public speaking and my comfort level with major topics.”
According to Dr. Bloiun, being able to stay up to date on current world events is crucial to performing well in debate. Practicing frequently is also heavily recommended.
“The debate team will teach participants how to argue well and respectively,” said Blouin, “it will play an even more important role in using critical thinking skills and persuasiveness.”
Debate teams also provide students a venue to speak on real world issues, allowing them to voice their educated opinions.
“I had gone through debate in high school and really enjoyed it,” said Sydney Reeder, also a sophomore. “I’m excited for an opportunity to do it in college.”
Reeder was one of the only students who tried out with past experience, however she noted that past experience is not always necessary when trying out.
“It’s more important that you want to learn, than that you are already good at debating,” said Reeder.
The name for the debate team will be fairly simple: the Milligan Debate Team. However, the team will be coming up with a unique mascot.
The debate team will meet once a week to practice at 7:30 p.m at the Tennis Pavilion. The team will begin at tri-state level and eventually move on to regional. There is no official date yet for the first competition.
Headline Photo: Pictured beginning from left: Elideth Lopez, Sydney Reeder, Henri Holben, John Mogaya. Students are preparing their arguments on the chosen topic to debate later.